If you’re new to Korean skincare and are not familiar with Peach and Lily yet, it’s an online K-beauty shop that is based in NYC. In recent years they’ve expanded to have their own in-shop boutiques within select Macy’s stores and Bergdorf Goodman, as well as collaborations with other luxury retailers like Barneys New York. They also launched their own line of sheet masks and a line of K-beauty products at CVS pharmacy under their Peach Slices label.  Led by founder, Alicia Yoon, Peach and Lily has been busily and happily sharing its K-beauty knowledge and curating the best of the best of Korean skincare.

When Peach and Lily recently emailed me to see if I’d be interested in helping to share their first ever Best of K-Beauty Awards winners, I was thrilled to accept!  Peach and Lily sent me all 17 of the Awards winners so I could try things out, select my top five picks and share my thoughts with you. It took me a while to post this because I wanted to use the products for a while to get a good feel for them.  There are so many great products in this award series that it was really hard to pick but, here are my Top Five!

The Lotus Essence, Lotus Leaf Extract 89%, $64

This toner-essence is made with 89% Lotus Leaf instead of water. The lotus leaf reportedly has antibiotic properties, and also contains flavinoids which are known to have anti-aging features. This also contains Niacinamide, several plant extracts, plant oils and Ceramide 3. Although this contains oils, the finish isn’t oily at all. This slightly milky toner-essence dries down a bit sticky at first, but absorbs quickly to a smooth finish. It’s also lightly fragranced, but it’s pretty faint and doesn’t linger. I like the scent!

On my oily skin, this is a great hydration booster that doesn’t feel heavy on the skin, hasn’t clogged my pores and it’s also brightening. I think all skin types would enjoy this as it’s lightweight, works well with other products and has brightening, hydrating and protective skin benefits.

Shangpree S-Energy Firming Serum, $120

This serum is luxuriously lightweight and contains propolis, botanicals and skin-soothing panthenol. It sinks right into my skin and leaves my face looking luminous. I also love that it has zero stickiness to it.

Eco Your Skin Volufiline15 Eye Essence, $70

I’ve never used a product with this texture, it’s a firm gel that also behaves like a thin balm as you apply. It glides across the skin to plump up fine lines and leaves a beautifully smooth base for undereye makeup. I’ve also been using it on neck lines and  a couple of the less deep lines are not as noticeable as before.

Shangpree Gold Black Pearl Hydrogel Eye Masks, $60

I love these as they’re great for depuffing my undereye area. These hydrogel eye masks are “enriched with Minerals, Amino Acids and Proteins in a concentrated treatment essence.” For hydrogels, I found them to be quite “juicy,” meaning they hold a lot of essence and within the container, too. I wish the gels were slightly longer, but otherwise I really  enjoyed them, especially underneath a sheet mask.

This is what I like to do… Double cleanse and do the earlier routine steps, then apply an eye serum (or any serum that’s ok to use around the eyes), then apply the eye masks, then place a sheet mask on top. When you remove the masks, you’re left with bouncy, luminous skin. NICE!

Jung Saem Mool Essential Star-cealer Foundation, $44

This is a medium coverage foundation in a compact that has a button which you press to dispense the foundation. Similar to the Korean “metal compacts,” but this is plastic not metal. FYI, the button is a long bar alongside the left side of the beige casing. Just mentioning this because it took me a few minutes to figure it out myself! I’m usually a 23 in Korean cushions and BB creams, and got the shade Medium and it’s a really good match. It has more yellow in it than other Korean bases I’ve tried and thankfully, no gray tone. Check out the swatch below…

Photo of compact from Peach & Lily’s site

I started off using only the foundation for a few days and skipped the concealer because I’m not much of a concealer person. But, I recently started using the concealer and wow, I was surprised that the color match was so good! That never happens for me, concealers are usually too pink or too orange on me.  It has a slightly dry finish, has a medium thickness and is pretty pigmented. I think this works great on areas of discoloration like scars and faint melasma, but if you’re using it to disguise undereye shadows, I recommend using an eye cream underneath. I have oily skin and the foundation and concealer lasted about 8-ish hours and 6 hours on me, respectively. The foundation is also buildable and has a semi-dewy finish. I only needed the lightest dusting of loose powder on my T-zone area because of my ahem, natural glow… lol, aka, oily skin.

If you’d like to check out the complete list of all 17 winning products, go to www.peachandlily.com. Thank you, Peach and Lily for inviting me to participate in this fantastic K-beauty event!